By Moira K. One such animal that has made a stir over the years is the odd looking bird from Down Under, the emu. Beginning in the s, the emu was brought to the United States as an exotic zoo animal, but later found a home in the barnyards of producers across the country.
Breed Bender The emu is a most unusual bird. The males grunt like a pig and both genders love to roll around in the mud. They have been known to pant like a dog and hiss like a cat. New laws governing the ratite industry, such as mandatory USDA inspection, have increased the validity of the industry. Emu breeding took off in the United States in the late s and became one of the fastest growing segments of alternative agriculture.
Breed Characteristics Originating from Australia, emus are the second largest member of the ratite family of flightless birds, which also includes the ostrich, rhea, kiwi and cassowary.
Emus have tiny wings and three toes. When born, they have soft, black-and-white striped feathers. As the birds mature into adulthood, feathers in various combinations of brown, black and tan replace the downy, striped chick feathers.
A mature emu can reach five to six feet in height and weigh between 90 and pounds. The birds can begin laying eggs as early as 16 to 18 months of age, but normally laying begins at two to three years. Hens typically lay between 20 and 50 large, green eggs in a season spanning from October to April and can be productive for more than 20 years. Emus tend to be curious and usually docile and non-aggressive toward people, especially if handled from birth. They can make very unique pets, as well as easy-to-handle livestock.
However, watch anything shiny—like jewelry or painted toenails—since they enjoy pecking at such things. Though their pecking may be more playful than painful, their sharp, claw-like toenails can pose a safety threat to humans. Even the tamest emu can inadvertently injure an inexperienced handler if it feels cornered or gets agitated. Raising a Flock New producers might consider purchasing eggs to hatch and raise.
While this is a less costly route than buying mature stock, it represents the greatest risk of mortality and will require sufficient time before the birds are productive and of marketable age. Raising Emus Basic operation requirements: Research first by visiting other farms and reading industry-related magazines and books. Separate pens are required for breeding and raising chicks. Fencing should be chain-link, woven-wire or no-climb mesh, however large wire mesh should be avoided and all pens should be five to six feet in height.
Emu are fence walkers, so all posts and wire fasteners should be kept on the outside of pens to reduce the potential for injury. Emu require shelters with adequate space, ventilation, heat to escape extreme cold and shade in the summer. Incubating and hatching facilities should be designed to ensure a clean environment with consistent temperature, humidity and air exchange. They can easily run in excess of 30 miles per hour. Consider the impressive physical attributes of an emu egg: a whopping five to six inches in length, around one pound in weight by contrast, an average chicken egg weighs only about two ounces , and a most delightful and unusual green color!
Crafters prize emu eggs for their coloring and size—not to mention the fact that the eggs have a tough, durable shell that stands up well for decorating.
And the same durable shell that makes it a good choice for crafting also helps emu eggs stay fresh in the refrigerator for a longer time. Interestingly, even though emus have adapted quite nicely to life on another continent, the emu egg-laying season still follows the summer months of Australia, which is about November to March. It takes a female emu three days to produce an egg, and the egg incubation period is 48 to 54 days.
Another primary purpose of keeping emus is their use as a meat source. An average adult emu can supply somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds of meat, and the quality and flavor of emu meat is highly praised. Compared to beef, emu meat is very low in fat and low in cholesterol, while at the same time containing higher amounts of vitamin C, vitamin E, protein, and iron which contributes to the dark red color of the meat.
Emu meat tends to be lean, and is recommended by the American Heart Association on its list of healthy protein choices. Emu oil contains fatty acids, including several beneficial acids like Omega 9, Omega 6, and Omega 3, making it popular as a natural skin moisturizer.
Additionally, some people claim to enjoy health benefits from using emu oil, citing anti-inflammation properties and relief from muscle soreness, insect bites, sunburns, and a host of other ailments—although these results tend to be anecdotal.
Nevertheless, products containing emu oil abound—from soaps to shampoos to lotions. Emu leather is used in products such as wallets, Western boots, handbags, shoes, and other personal items. If the idea of raising these beautiful birds sounds appealing to you, then the first step is to understand what type of infrastructure you will need in place before you bring home your first pair of emus. Again to introduce any tender meat of Emu for higher price it would lose other sale values on paired grower stock sale, oil, skin etc.
Thus this bird could not so far gain the required position for selling tender meat say by 20wk of age which become unviable. When we intend to derive all commercial products like oil, skin, feather etc. There need to be more processing infrastructures to make these Emu products attractive and gain market values which perhaps may come up in the Emu propagating locations through joint venture activities to support Emu farmers for economical values.
Processing activities for skin, oil, feather and also for meat if desired is now highly essential for boosting such commercial projects. Systematic collections of raw out puts like emu fat, feather, skin etc. Such chain linkages are not visible widely with better technology so as to translate in to attractive ventures. Emu meat processing has also to be planned along with collection of other out puts so that the meat can be marketed gradually in the demanded markets.
There are reports available that some restaurants are now serving Emu meat preparations and getting popular but to locate volume of the market we need to have processing technology involved in Emu sector.
Other possibilities of common platforms for Emu propagation for commercial viability would be to support regular production and marketing introducing integration programs which may attract investors in this sector. Is it comparable with growth, reproductive fitness, and marketability with chicken? Meat production could be from any meat producing animal and birds which are responding to controlled breeding programs and selection technique.
Any objective changes in any species for commercial production program need to have population size and pedigree information so as to have any genetic response for development in the desired traits.
However gestation period of all such meat animal and birds are important criteria for expecting gains in the desired traits per generations for fast developments and deciding the standards. I observe there are many such birds like ducks, guinea fowl, Japanese quails, and turkeys which have commercial values for meat and egg too but could not be propagated by farmers widely so far as alternative meat production programs.
The growth of such alternative poultry farming could not touch the levels which were expected at par with chicken meat and egg production. Again Ostrich and Emu could not get so far the expected status of meat producer birds all over world but such birds have alternate commercial values when we consider all its potentialities. For example other animals like buffalos, cattle, camels, horse, elephants all such animal have alternative values and human being explore those values in possible ways and keep bonding relationships while leading the social life on this planets.
Even dogs have wonderful bonding relationships with human beings and it has tremendous social values as used as No. Thus Pet culture is very important where there is tremendous friendship felt by human beings in which economics are not involved.
If I look to the arithmetic comparisons of Emu birds with chicken broilers with reference to growth and body weight it is simply not possible due to species difference. This in turn further generates to produce kg of live weight meat in 40days time in next generations. So when I consider chicken flocks, one female chicken broiler breeder generate meat in live weight is kg in total ,within a period of 75weeks time by spending kg of feed or so.
If I look to the mathematical constants it could be 9. Now let us see the case of Emu assuming 3years ie first year bird reach puberty and 2year produce about 35 eggs and third year required to grow up to 40kg body wt when breeding stock maintain sex ratio in pairs unlike chicken through AI.
Now mathematical constants which can be derived would be around 7. Thus in practical it is very expensive to have Emu farm as compared to chicken broiler farming unless other products like oil, skin, feathers are marketed at good price for which planned programs are needed. If I take up the project with the concept of selling Emu chicks in pair then it is very good but how to complete the cycle of marketing and end users of the bird?
In general it seems to me that the Emu farming has tremendous hidden values which need marketing strategies. We visit Zoo and find Emu birds and all get happy to see such majestic bird. In the recent past Emu farmers could suddenly realized the direct marketing of Emu products are getting harder although the financial institutions could consider these farming projects considering the possibilities of market values. But it seems there is decline in one state and picking up in other state which is natural as all farming community expects good returns from their investment, labor and time.
However in all such activities cost and benefit ratios are basic deciding factors for which investors have to come up. If needed all these vegetable items could be processed for easy digestibility and creating attraction for the bird at low cost. This trend would create huge market demand in India the way people have bonding with good size dogs, horse etc. Poultry industry in India is one of the fastest growing livestock sector in the country and is heading towards scientific modernization.
Poultry industry in India, though one of the fastest growing segment of animal husbandry sector, uncertainty prevails in the mind of poultry entrepreneurs because of chronic and acute problems of high feeding cost, emerging and re-emerging diseases, vaccine failure and fluctuating market price of meat and eggs.
Eruption of transmittable, zoonotic and communicable diseases to excess of heat or cold are the main threats to poultry industry which leads to massive deaths and sudden fall in production.
All these conditions necessitate the poultry industry to be diversified with other species viz. Out of these diversification Emu farming is emerging these days with two main purposes:. The first purpose is to breed birds — to increase the emu population, because of the high profits that can be made by selling adult emus as breeding birds.
The second purpose is to slaughter birds -to get the by-products like emu meat, emu oil, emu feathers, emu skin and emu nails.
Emu farming in India is still in primitive stage and the activity is rapidly increasing in size and number, by spreading into many states including Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab, Manipur, Chandigarh, Orissa and Assam. This expansion is likely to continue in the coming years in many other states.
Majority of the. Many small sized farms are emerging day by day but neither there is a census available nor any method been designed to account them so far. But, according to Indian Emu Association of India there are around farms with six lakhs birds in the country.
Emu provides different products of economical value. The prime cuts of emu meat can be ready for sale to restaurants, residential orders, worldwide markets and in the future, shipment to supermarkets. Emu fat is rendered to produce oil, which has dietary, therapeutic anti-inflammatory and cosmetic value Rao, Emu oil is found to be more cosmetically acceptable with better skin penetration compared to mineral oil Zemtov et al.
Additionally, the medical industry uses the oil for therapeutic rubbing oil, skin and facial moisturizing lotions and medical applications used for treating the skin of burn victims. Emu skin has a similar tensile extensibility to ostrich skin and a rigidity value comparable to pig skin Hoven, Emu skin is fine and strong, leg skin is of distinctive pattern, hence highly valued Rao, Emu leather is well suited for embellishing designer apparel, boots, wallets, handbags and many other accessories.
The feathers of the emu birds are double quills, attractive and velvety to touch and they are in demand in the fashion, art and craft industries. Eggs per year 10 to 20 eggs in the first breeding season, gradually increases up to eggs in subsequent breeding seasons.
Natural food of emu are insects, leaves of plant and forages, different grasses, also eats different kinds of vegetables and fruits like carrot, cucumber, papaya etc. For the first 14 weeks or till attaining standard body weight of 10kg emu chicks are fed with starter mash.
Birds are fed with grower mash till their 34 weeks or 25 kg body weight. Finisher ration is offered from 35 weeks age to slaughter or up to 12 — 18 months age.
Emu birds attain sexual maturity at 18 — 24 months age. First egg is laid around two and half years of age. Eggs are laid during October to February, particularly in cooler days of the year. Emu chicks when hatch out have body stripes similar to squirrel, later as they grow after three months they lose the stripes to turn into brownish black feathers. Adult emu is a large bird up to 6 ft ht.
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